Arcturus® PicoPure® DNA Extraction Kit

Viability of the IR laser-enabled laser capture microdissection (LCM) technique has been shown for a variety of different cell types. The procedure is remarkably simple and robust, and is available exclusively with Applied Biosystems® Arcturus® LCM instruments. Any Arcturus® LCM system can be used, including the new, open, and modular ArcturusXT™ system. The Arcturus® LCM method is extraordinarily gentle and ideal for microdissection of single cells or small numbers of cells. This system uniquely combines LCM and UV laser cutting for ultimate microdissection flexibility.

Maximize DNA Recovery

Because DNA is not lost due to organic extractions or spin columns, the PicoPure® kit enables reliable and reproducible DNA recovery from as few as 10 cells. PCR studies illustrate the advantages of the PicoPure® kit. Equal amounts of DNA were transferred to PCR, either directly in the PicoPure® kit buffer or after purification using a DNA extraction kit from a leading manufacturer. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) demonstrates that the PicoPure® kit samples amplify earlier, suggesting that there is more DNA present, and amplify more consistently, indicating less sample variation, than column-purified samples. The PicoPure® kit's reliably high DNA recovery enables increased detection sensitivity when amplifying single-copy genes from small samples in mutation analysis or genotyping assays. This high DNA recovery makes the kit ideal for small samples, such as those prepared by LCM.

Extract DNA for Any PCR Application

DNA extracted with the PicoPure® kit is compatible with end-point PCR performed in the same 0.5 mL tube used for DNA extraction. For gene copy number quantitation, DNA from very small samples can be directly amplified by qRT-PCR without further purification, using platforms such as the StepOnePlus™ Real-Time PCR System. For highly sensitive mutation and genotype analysis, DNA can be extracted and directly amplified from small samples, and gene fragments can be separated by dHPLC (denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography), using platforms such as the WAVE® System (Transgenomics) (Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2. PicoPure® DNA extraction and quantitation of Her2/neu gene copy number by real-time PCR. 10, 100, and 1,000 SKBR3 cells were microdissected from cell smears using LCM.DNA was extracted using 10 µL of PicoPure® DNA Extraction Solution and, without further purification, all 10 µL was used in a 20 µL real-time PCR reaction. The number of gene copies per sample was determined and divided by the number of cells per sample to determine the number of gene copies per cell.